According to the ministry finance the excise tax increase will cause an increase priceand thus limit the consumption of tobacco products and their substitutes by consumers, especially minors. A similar opinion is also shared by the former national health consultant, Prof. Jarosław Pinkas. In his opinion, the high price of stimulants means that demand for them is decreasing. Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Health Krzysztof Łanda has a different opinion.
Prices are up. This is how much you'll pay for a pack of cigarettes
– Increases in excise duty on cigarettes are used to plug the budget gap, but they do not encourage people to quit smoking. If a certain threshold is exceeded, we are at risk of increasing illegal import and production – assessed the deputy head of the Ministry of Finance, quoted by Polish Press Agency. Ministry of Finance presented calculations regarding the increase in the prices of cigarette packs in the coming years. The retail price of a pack of 20 cigarettes in the years 2025-2027 will increase by approx. PLN 2.7-3.1 year-on-year. As for smoking tobacco, the retail prices of a 50 g pack should change by approx. PLN 7.8-8 year-on-year. The estimated increase in the price of a pack of heater inserts will be approx. PLN 1/pack year-on-year, and in the case of e-cigarette liquid, the expected increase in the retail price of a 10 ml refill container is PLN 4.4-5 year-on-year. Jarosław Neneman, Deputy Minister of Finance, informed that in three years the price of a pack of cigarettes may amount to approx. PLN 26-27. It was also estimated that thanks to the amendment, revenues from excise tax and VAT will amount to PLN 4.2 billion in 2025, PLN 4.3 billion in 2026 and PLN 4 billion in 2027.
Finance Minister: Availability of cigarettes is very high
– In 2015, the average salary could buy about 290 packs of cigarettes, and now it is 490 – Finance Minister Andrzej Domański said at the end of July. He emphasized that “we have the second cheapest cigarettes in the entire European Union, only in Bulgaria are they cheaper”. He added that health aspects are an absolute priority. – We know that the availability of cigarettes is very high, very young people also reach for tobacco products. We want to limit this in some way – explained the Minister of Finance.
Additional excise duty on tobacco products is to be 25 percent higher next year compared to the so-called road map, i.e. the current schedule of annual increases. It was adopted two years ago and assumes raising the excise tax rate on alcohol, tobacco products, dried tobacco and innovative products. Map The road map assumes that excise duty on ethyl alcohol, beer, wine, fermented beverages, excluding cider and perry, and intermediate products will increase by 5 percent each year. In turn, when it comes to innovative products and cigarettes and smoking tobacco, it is 10 percent. The road map assumes a successive increase in excise duty rates on alcohol and tobacco products until 2027.